Production of arabitol by yeasts: current status and future prospects

Abstract

Summary Arabitol belongs to the pentitol family and is used in the food industry as a sweetener and in the production of human therapeutics as an anticariogenic agent and an adipose tissue reducer. It can also be utilized as a substrate for chemical products such as arabinoic and xylonic acids, propylene, ethylene glycol, xylitol and others. It is included on the list of 12 building block C3‐C6 compounds, designated for further biotechnological research. This polyol can be produced by yeasts in the processes of bioconversion or biotransformation of waste materials from agriculture, the forest industry (l‐arabinose, glucose) and the biodiesel industry (glycerol). The present review discusses research on native yeasts from the genera Candida, Pichia, Debaryomyces and Zygosaccharomyces as well as genetically modified strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae which are able to utilize biomass hydrolysates to effectively produce l‐ or d‐arabitol. The metabolic pathways of these yeasts leading from sugars and glycerol to arabitol are presented. Although the number of reports concerning microbial production of arabitol is rather limited, the research on this topic has been growing for the last several years, with researchers looking for new micro‐organisms, substrates and technologies.

Isolation, identification and screening of yeasts towards their ability to assimilate biodiesel‐derived crude glycerol: microbial production of polyols, endopolysaccharides and lipid

“…) was obtained 360 h after inoculation. Arabitol production achieved compares favorably with most of the literature reports presented in the literature concerning Ara production by yeasts (Kordowska‐Wiater et al ; Kordowska‐Wiater et al ; Koganti et al ; Koganti and Ju ; Kumdam et al ; Kordowska‐Wiater ).…”

“…FMCC Y 69 was outstanding. Arabitol, identified by the US Department of Energy as one of the top 30 biomass‐derivable building block compounds (Kordowska‐Wiater ) and presenting a significant spectrum of applications in food‐processing facilities, in chemical applications and in White Biotechnology, costs some tens of US$ per kg.…”

Yeasts found in vineyards and wineries

“…Other biotechnological applications of Zygosaccharomyces species include the production of the sugar‐alcohols sweeteners arabitol and xylitol from glucose by Z . rouxii (Qi et al ., ; Saha et al ., ; Kordowska‐Wiater, ). Additionally, Z .…”

“…Other biotechnological applications of Zygosaccharomyces species include the production of the sugar-alcohols sweeteners arabitol and xylitol from glucose by Z. rouxii (Qi et al, 2015;Saha et al, 2007;Kordowska-Wiater, 2015). Additionally, Z. bailii, Z. bisporus and Z. priorionus have been shown to produce significant amounts of phytase (Lata et al, 2015;Pable et al, 2014).…”

The production of arabitol by a novel plant yeast isolate Candida parapsilosis 27RL-4

“…An overview of these species was published by Kordowska-Wiater [11]. Among presented yeasts there were effective polyol producers such as Metchnikowia reukaufii (yield of 0.52 g g -1 ) and Zygosaccharomyces rouxii (yield of 0.48 g g -1 ), as well as weak producers e.g.…”